Comrade Damilare Adenola, the director of mobilisation for the Take It Back Movement, one of the groups behind the planned #EndBadGovernance protest against economic hardship, has said the Eagle Square in Abuja is a public property and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has no choice than to allow “hungry Nigerian youths” demonstrate their displeasure on the facility
Adenola stated this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme on Sunday.
Recall that the youth leader had signed a letter which was addressed to the minister, seeking the use of the facility but the minister said he had not seen such a letter.
While reacting to the minister’s comment, the activists blamed the delay on bureaucratic bottlenecks in government.
He, however, assured that Mr Wike would get the letter unfailingly on Monday ahead of the demonstration starting Thursday.
“It is possible that the receipt of the letter is being delayed by most likely bureaucracy in government or the minister is likely being insincere about receiving the letter.
“If he [Wike] insists that he hasn’t receive it, the alternative is that he was served by publication because many Nigerian ministries streamline what to receive or not. If he says he didn’t get it physically, then we could as well say that he was served by publication.
“If he says he wants it by Monday, we will serve him,” he said.
“The truth is that the Eagle Square is a public property. When I saw the video of the minister, I was amazed because I saw the minister asking us to pay rent, pay security fees, and all that.
“My question to the minister is this: how does the minister expect a greater population of Nigerian youths who are impoverished, who have no jobs to afford the exorbitant price he is expecting us to pay?.
“We are going to be at the Eagle Square on August 1st,” he insisted.
Speaking further, Adenola maintained that it’s unfair to tag the protesters as faceless, adding that the motivation behind the proposed public demonstration is hunger.
“It’s a double insult to tag the organisers of the protest as faceless.
“The organisers of the protest are hungry Nigerians; they are a host of unemployed Nigerians, they are a host of hopeless Nigerians who are roaming the streets.
“They are the out-of-school children spread across the country. These are the organisers of the protest, and the greatest motivation of this #EndBadGovernance protest is hunger. People are really hungry,” he said.
“This is the idea of battered Nigerian people, this is the idea of hungry Nigerian people, this is the idea of hopeless Nigerian people.
“Young people are tired and need to express their displeasure against the government’s malfeasance,” Mr Adenola added.
